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2014 General Assembly readies for opening day

Sonnenberg, Brophy term limited, seek new offices

By Marianne Goodland

Journal-Advocate legislative reporter

Posted:
01/04/2014 10:04:50 AM MST

Water, voter representation, animal abuse, and eminent domain rights for oil pipeline companies top the agendas for the two legislators representing northeastern and eastern Colorado. The 2014 session also marks the end of the House and Senate careers of Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, and Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, respectively, although both seek new elected offices in November.

Sonnenberg's legislative agenda includes a bill based on the "Phillips County Proposal." That proposal arose last year during unsuccessful efforts by 11 counties, all but one in northeastern Colorado, to secede and form a 51st state.

The bill suggests House representatives be elected by county rather than by district. "Rural Colorado would have a more appropriate voice in the legislature," Sonnenberg said this week. He acknowledged that getting Democrats to support such a bill in the legislature would be an uphill battle, and there are constitutional issues as well. "However, I think the argument can be made that in a sovereign government, each county could have their own representation," he said. But if successful (and it would require a vote to change the state's constitution), Democrats "would have to have more rural-minded members to represent rural Colorado, and that would be a challenge," Sonnenberg said.

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Sonnenberg also intends to carry a bill requiring markers on meteorological towers. These are towers shorter than wind turbine towers and are used to test whether an area is good for a wind farm. However, the towers are not marked and don't have to have permits, and four pilots have been lost in other states in the last three years because of those towers. The National Transportation Safety Board has asked states to pass this type of legislation.

In Colorado, the towers can be a danger to pilots who spray in the spring or other types of low-flying aviation, Sonnenberg said.

Sonnenberg plans to try again on a bill to keep the federal government from demanding water rights for federal lands used for ski operations and grazing. His 2013 effort, which was supported by the Interim Water Resources Committee, lost on the final day of the session.

A bill to limit access to those who take videos of alleged animal cruelty is also on Sonnenberg's plate this year. That bill comes in response to the controversial tail-docking bill, HB 13-1231, which would have banned the already-rare practice of docking dairy cattle tails. "If you see animal abuse, within 24 hours, you need to turn it over to legal officials, or you're an accomplice," Sonnenberg said. "If you truly care about animals, turn it over to law enforcement" instead of sitting on the video "until it's time to raise money," a bit of a jab at animal rights activists who videotaped docked dairy cattle at a farm in Morgan County.

Sonnenberg also intends to be a sponsor on another controversial holdover from 2013: the bill to grant eminent domain rights to oil pipeline companies.

As to whether the 2014 session will be a repeat of 2013, Sonnenberg said it could go one of two ways. "Democrats could back off their hard-driven agenda because of the recalls [in the Colorado Senate] and they may try to appear more moderate." On the other hand, if Democrats fear they will lose either the House or Senate chamber, they may go through the rest of that agenda, he said.

Brophy, one of six Republicans vying for governor, agreed the 2014 session could go either way. Democrats could try to lay low and not do anything as extreme as last year, he said, or "they'll correctly gauge that this is the last time they control the whole thing and get everything they can. We won't know [which way] that will be until February," he predicted.

In 2014, you won't see some of the bills that Brophy has carried in the past, such as repealing daylight savings time or legislation on self-driving motor vehicles. Brophy intends to carry legislation to deal with an effect of Obamacare on individual health policies. That bill would allow people to buy affordable health policies offered in other states. While that idea was initially banned under the Affordable Care Act, the president waived that late last year. "Now it's possible," Brophy said.

Brophy also is working on a bill that would tap the results of the study on the South Platte aquifer, HB 12-1278 and deal with the impact of the September floods.

"I'm concentrating on making sure our state goes in the right direction," Brophy said of his agenda for this session. He also hopes a bill will be introduced to repeal the 2013 law on expanding background checks for firearms purchases. But he's less optimistic that efforts to repeal the renewable energy standard bill from last year, SB 13-252, will be successful unless Governor John Hickenlooper and legislative Democrats get behind it.

People are still angry about that legislation, Brophy said. He noted that Democrats came to the Colorado Ag Classic in December, asking how they can reach out to rural Colorado. "They got the picture. They understand that they failed to represent rural Colorado."

Concern over the lack of attention by Democrats last session to rural issues is on the mind of Rep. Brian DelGrosso (R-Loveland), the new House Minority Leader. DelGrosso was chosen to lead House Republicans when then-Minority Leader Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, stepped out of the minority position to run for Attorney General.

"The reality is, everyone is focused on the Front Range," DelGrosso told this reporter this week. "Good things are going on in the Front Range, the economy is getting better, unemployment is [down], but that's not being enjoyed in northeastern Colorado or the Western Slope. When we pass legislation it can't just be good for the Front Range. It has to be good for the entire state," he said.

Will Hickenlooper listen more to rural Colorado? House Minority Leader Rep. Brian DelGrosso (R-Loveland) noted the governor spent a lot of time in rural Colorado during the floods. In those visits the governor got an earful on issues that weren't about the floods, according to DelGrosso. "If the governor listens to the entire state it's better for the entire state, and in an election year I hope he will take some of that into consideration."

The flooding led to a quickly-assembled legislative committee that will send two bills to the capitol this session. One bill, sponsored by Rep. Matt Jones (D-Louisville) would allow counties more flexibility in using tax dollars to fix roads and bridges. Sonnenberg, who sat on that committee, will carry a bill to allow a head gate for an irrigation ditch to be relocated when there's a change in the natural flow of the ditch.

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